1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to virtual world environments, and in particular to pattern creation and positioning in a virtual world environment.
2. Background Information
As internet based 3-D virtual worlds (VW) become more and more ubiquitous, individuals and businesses across a variety of industries are creating a presence in these worlds for many purposes including social networking, advertising and sales. Users of these VWs are able to create objects, services and a plurality of other business opportunities “in world” that could help the individual or company gain revenue, launch products or services, and provide customers with a rich information base for learning and buying opportunities.
At the moment, creating layouts for use in virtual-worlds requires the careful planning and placement of each element in the three-dimensional space. The items in the layout are independent of each other and modifying or replacing the layout requires manually altering the position of each item that needs to be moved to accommodate the new design. This process is time-consuming and inefficient in managing 3-D content. Additionally, layouts are designed in particular virtual worlds and once implemented there remain tied to that particular implementation. Builds cannot be transported from one world to another and re-used, requiring duplication of effort and incurring the full build and design costs for each virtual world, as well as becoming obsolete following loss of interest/usage in the virtual world they were created in.
Existing layout packages provide sophisticated ways of designing store layouts but are not designed to integrate this information with creating instances of the stores in virtual worlds. Nor do they allow for the association of the business logic that a store requires to be able to function and complete commercial transactions. Some simple tools for automated building exist in virtual worlds but these are not tied in to a full commercial system, nor do they allow for easy management of content and design from outside of the virtual world, or in a format not dependant on the virtual world in question.